Businesses often process their transactions with other businesses through various means of payment types, such as by a credit account, a checking account, or an Automated Clearing House (ACH) credit transfer. For example, a buyer may have a purchase order (PO) for a seller disclosing the goods the buyer wishes to purchase. The PO may have several payment types associated with it depending on such factors as contractual obligations or credit limits. Consequently, the buyer may pay for certain goods using a check while paying for other goods with a credit card. Similarly, multiple POs may have multiple payment types.
Typically, PO or invoice payments are processed manually. The buyer may look through an accounts payable file and, based on the payment type, write checks to a seller, request the seller to charge a credit card, or prepare a money order for the seller, for example.
The process of manually determining the payment type for a payment, choosing between different systems that process the payment type, and disseminating the payment request through the different systems can become cumbersome to track, reconcile, and control. For example, each PO may be processed separately, resulting in inefficiencies as multiple payments are made to the same buyer during a window of time.
Some organizations utilize an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which typically integrates data into a single unified system within the organization, such as by storing the accounts payables of the organization into a single database. The ERP system can assist in organizing the accounts payables of the buyer or the accounts receivables of the seller; however, the ERP system does not automatically process each payment type through the different systems nor does the ERP automatically reconcile remitted payments to the corresponding invoices and/or POs.
Moreover, certain payment types may have advantages that may be underutilized when buyers or sellers process their accounts payables or accounts receivables in-house. For example, an account such as a credit account, within a payment processing system may have remittance guarantees or conditional incentives that may be beneficial to the business owner. The seller may prefer payments made on an account within the payment processing system because the payment processing system may facilitate remittance of the payment within a period of time or provide promotions options that increase the sales of the seller. The buyer may prefer payments made on the account because the account may be part of a loyalty program such that the buyer can receive a benefit by utilizing the account when conducting transactions. In a business-to-business transaction, the loyalty program may include cash back, insurance coverage for goods purchased, or frequently flyer miles, for examples. These benefits may be underutilized because the buyer or the seller engaged in trade may not be aware of the capability of the other to process the transaction on the account or the buyer or the seller may not know of the other's preference.
There is a need for a system in which the processing of payment obligations from the buyer to the seller can be automated. This and other problems, individually and collectively, are addressed herein.